Thilo Schulze began his time in the steel industry at one of Bilstein Cold Rolled Steel's batch annealing facilities in Hagen, Germany. After seven years at this location, Thilo was chosen to help Bilstein build and start up the company’s new plant in the U.S. because of his technical knowledge and leadership skills. In the U.S., Thilo was promoted from first operator to team lead in just a couple years, all while continuing to develop new skills. He returned to Germany only briefly before fully moving to the U.S. Soon, Thilo began to take over more quality control roles and jumped into annealing work any time he was needed.

Thilo has involved himself more and more in the metallurgical aspects of heat treating. In 2022, Bilstein added more furnaces to their heat treating capacity; Thilo was able to keep every detail running smoothly, sharing his knowledge with the rest of the team, commissioning trials, and adding new cycles. Once again, he demonstrated he is an expert not just on batch annealing but that he is also an asset to the company.